Vic Garcia's Blog

The Westar EPK

A helpful tool for artists to have is an EPK (or Electronic Press Kit). In business, EPK’s are internet-accessible, media packages that contain all the information about the artist. They’re your online business card. Keep them up-to-date, looking professional and make sure they represent you accurately.

Any Musician’s Survival Guide, will insist that you have an EPK. Nowadays, it’s much more efficient to e-mail promoters you’re EPK rather than driving to the post office and shipping your materials the old-fashioned way. I’m finding that more and more promoters prefer e-mail submissions rather than sorting through mail packages.

I highly recommend that you avoid submitting your myspace page as your EPK, they take too long to load. The best solution I’ve seen for creating EPKs is through Sonicbids.com, they’re fast to load and don’t have a bunch of banners with links to other things that aren’t related to your band.

Your EPK should contain: at least one professional photo of the artist, biography, press-clippings, contact info, tour schedule (or prior tour schedule) and a demo CD. Now, it’s always a good idea to add a little flair to your EPK, perhaps go with a theme such as, old newspaper or restaurant menu. You want your EPK to stand out to these people who spend hours reviewing band submissions.

I will go into more detail about writing a good artist bio and discuss band photos in the near future, but I really wanted to share with you the value of EPKs. Let’s say that you’ve just started a band and want to get a few gigs around town. Well, I would start with a demo, photo, bio and create an EPK. Forward your EPK link to promoters (often a promoter’s email address can be found on a club’s web-page) and if it’s sharp enough and makes an impression, I guarantee you will get booked. Good luck!

Alejandra Alberti is a Latin Singer who’s newest CD titled, Vueltas was released earlier this year. Ethan Carlson helped produce some of the tracks and I co-wrote her title song “Vueltas.”

This Wednesday morning, I played guitar for her on Univision’s Primera Edicion Show. Our call time was 5:00AM, which of course is brutal for any musician. We had a fun time though, met some good people at Univision and got the job done without any issues. The songs we performed were “9:33″ and “Luces.”

Alejandra and I met in Miami and through a mutual friend we were asked to co-write a song for a BMI event at the University of Miami. The song we wrote was “Vueltas,” which is now the title of her latest release. I was very satisfied with the recorded version, produced by Baltazar Hinojosa.

I should also note that Alejandra was nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2007. Visit her site www.alejandraalberti.net or her myspace page

Check out this video for her song “Blanca Fatal.” The video was directed by a mutual friend Micho, who’s an amazing visual artist. Visit www.milcho.com.

The one and only Hank Williams, ladies and gents.

Relic Telecaster

Specializing in custom and unique relic guitars, Rittenhouse is making a splash on the musician’s community. Currently offering S-Model, T-Model and J-Master’s loaded with Lollar Pickups or the pickups of your choice. Basically, imagine your dream guitar and Abe at Rittenhouse will make it happen.

Abe has become a friend of mine in the last year, as I’ve purchased two of his beautifully crafted guitars. One is my famous Jazzmaster, which I used on many Kingsley gigs and the other is a gorgeous white Stratocaster. When I first held these guitars, my hands fell in love with the aged neck, it’s like holding a 40-50 year-old instrument. After checking out all the features, I proceed to plug in and have fun.

The wiring on these guitars is superb. Abe really takes his time to do a nice, clean job, whereas messy wiring can lead to a noisy signal. As for pickups, if you have a specific sound that you’re trying to achieve, Abe will recommend the right pickups for the job. He usually opts for Lollars though, which I think are an excellent choice. They offer a very warm, bluesy, vintage tone; they’re as close as you can get to the real deal. 

One of my favorite features on real relic guitars and a feature that Rittenhouse re-creates so well, is the characterization of the paint job. As these original 50’s and 60’s guitars aged, they’re colors sometimes faded, cracked, checked, rubbed off, etc… this is what gives the guitars its “Mojo” or vibe. Abe meticulously works his magic on the paint job to make it look authentic. Visit his site at www.rittenhouseguitars.com and view his gallery.

I wanted to mention Abe and Rittenhouse Guitars, because you know how I feel about promoting good folks from my home town of Miami, but Abe is really an exceptionally gifted fellow. He’s an extremely genuine cat and working with him to achieve the right guitar has been a great experience for me. I can’t even begin to tell you how many phone calls I’ve placed asking him for technical advice and he’s always been more than delighted to provide answers.

Rittenhouse Guitars is now offering a guitar giveaway. Please make sure to participate, as the lucky winner could be you!

Amazing tune that has inspired a few songs that I’ve written… Enjoy!

Leonid Meteor Shower 2001

This year’s Leonid meteor shower peaks on Tuesday, Nov. 17th and is expected to be one of the biggest meteor showers of our lifetime.

If forecasters are correct, the shower should produce a mild but pretty sprinkling of meteors over North America followed by a more intense outburst over Asia. The phase of the Moon will be new, setting the stage for what could be one of the best Leonid showers in years.

“We’re predicting 20 to 30 meteors per hour over the Americas, and as many as 200 to 300 per hour over Asia,” says Bill Cooke of NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office. 

Leonids are bits of debris from Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Every 33 years the comet visits the inner solar system and leaves a stream of dusty debris in its wake. Many of these streams have drifted across the November portion of Earth’s orbit. Whenever we hit one, meteors come flying out of the constellation Leo.

The first stream crossing on Nov. 17th comes around 0900 UT (4 a.m. EST, 1 a.m. PST). The debris is a diffuse mix of particles from several old streams that should produce a gentle display of two to three dozen meteors per hour over North America. Dark skies are recommended for full effect.

Where will you be to watch this? I’ll be heading over to the Griffith Observatory Late Tuesday night to catch the meteor show. Join me if you’re in Los Angeles.

Article borrowed from redorbit.com, a great source for information.

One of my favorite bands…The Band. Happy Monday!

This video has a very haunting quality. Leadbelly was a prisoner when he was discovered. This is the best quality video I’ve seen of him performing! Folk music, my friends!

terramusic.org

Terra Music is a project spear-headed by Ethan Carlson and myself, as another outlet for our artistic needs. It’s Healing Instrumental Music aimed towards holistic doctors and/or environments that promote a Zen atmosphere.

Initially, Ethan and I were commissioned to compose and record 40 mins of Instrumental Healing Music by a few Holistic Doctors in South Florida. We spent two months working on the record and fell in love with the project. I remember back-packing through Europe that summer listening to the music on my headphones and it really added to my experience. The compositions were meticulously worked on and have been tested and approved; I slept to the album for a few nights and believe me, I had pleasant dreams.

Visit our site www.terramusic.org and please spread the word. Anyone interested in a sample track, just e-mail me at vickingsley@gmail.com and I will send you an mp3.

Great tune and video. I saw John Fogerty live last week. It was quite an experience and of course, he played this tune!